best long connection?


Hi all,

My second system will run (mono) speakers throughout the house. The central speaker-wire patch panel is about 30' (as the cable runs) from my sources. The amp and pre-amp support only RCA (unbalanced) connections. A converter will combine the stereo pre-amp outputs into mono inputs for the amp.

Which of these cabling choies might produce the best results?

1. Place pre-amp with the sources, the mono converter with the amp, and run long stereo interconnects between the pre-amp and amp.

2. Place pre-amp and mono converter with the sources, and run a single mono interconnect to the amp.

3. Put everything with the sources, and run a long speaker wire to the speaker patch panel.

Thanks for any help!
ehart

Showing 1 response by eldartford

It depends on the wire. Electrons don't see the length of the wire. They see resistance, inductance, and capacitance. A 2 meter interconnect can look "longer" than a 5 meter one. For line level interconnects, low capacitance is the main issue.

It also matters what is the output impedance of the line level output. A solid state output with 10-50 ohm output impedance will tolerate long interconnects. If you have a tube preamp, 200 - 600 ohms output impedance, interconnects can be critical.